"Ralph, would you tell this hunka tin to get away from me?"

"But, Mr. Maxwell! I am here to assist you!" A golden figure said in a feminine voice, as it walked stiffly at Maxwell's side, carrying a few cups of punch in it's stiff fingers.

Ralph ran over to meet Bill and the golden figure by his side.

"Rhonda! Is that you?" Ralph asked his former student. "You look great! You make a great C3PO! How is everything going for you?" Rhonda had been transferred to another senior class this year, scoring well enough last year that Ralph decided she could spend her senior year in a regular program, and not in his special ed class.

"Rhonda? Is that you angel?" Bill asked, incredulously, as he turned and looked down at the golden android costume.

"Well, yeah, it is, Mr. Maxwell." She replied. She was completely covered in a hard plastic shell, leaving no clue of her real identity visible. "I figured since Mrs. Hinkley there was gonna be the princess, there wasn't really any other good parts for me to play... as a girl... well, you know."

Ralph, once again, put his finger up to his lips and shook his head. But his time he was too late.

"What?" Bill asked quickly, catching the unspoken communication going on between the two. "Ralph... what is she talking about? I thought..."

"So, Rhonda! Cyler!" Ralph said, cutting Bill off. "Who else is coming? Who's gonna be Obi Wan?"

"Oh, well, that's a bit of a surprise, too, Mr. H.!" Rhonda said, as she tried to cautiously hand over a drink to Pam. "There are gonna be a lot of surprises here tonight!"

Ralph smiled, as he looked around the gym at all the different costumes. Some were pretty good, but only his class, and some of the alumni like Rhonda, came all together, and dressed in a theme.

"You know, I bet we're gonna win that costume contest tonight!" Cyler said, as he turned to Rhonda. "We look HOT!"

Bill turned to Ralph, once again confused. "Costume contest?"

"Hey! Mr. H!"

Ralph turned around, just in time to see several other members of his class approach. He was impressed by the costumes. A few were also wearing the same costume as Ralph was, and one wore a black military uniform.

"You guys look great!! Where's Darth Vader? Any Storm Troopers?" Ralph asked.

"Are you kidding?" one of the students cried out. "Do you know how expensive it is to rent those kind of get ups?"

Bill looked at the groups of kids as they approached.

"A buncha yahoos in their pyjamas. I just don't get it." Bill was glad that his outfit was at least relatively normal. He reached down at his right side, admiring the leather holster that hung off his hip.

"Hey, were's Rodriguez?" Ralph asked, as his students gathered around. A few of the students dropped their heads, and sighed.

"What's wrong?"

"Uh, Mr. H., I think he's gonna blow it. You know, Paco, isn't really, well, you know..."

"What do you mean?" Ralph asked, concerned.

"Well," Cyler said cautiously. "He really wanted to come as Boba Fett. And, well, I don't know if he's gonna be able to pull it off. That's a hard costume to get going..."

Ralph understood his friend's concern, since everyone else looked so good in their costumes. It would be a disappointment if Paco showed up in something not as well designed.

"Well, guys, that's not the point. We're all just here to have a good time, right?" Ralph added, trying to once again boost morale. A few groaned in agreement.

"Uh, Ralph..." Bill stood motionless, staring in shock across the room. Caught up in conversation with his students, Ralph did not hear his partner.

"Uh, Ralph..." Bill repeated, with a little more urgency in his voice.

"What, Bill?"

"Uh... Green guy..." Bill whispered, in a gravelly and panicked voice.

"What?"

Ralph turned around to see two figures walking across the room. One, slightly hunched over and carrying a cane, was being led by the other character. Slightly taller, the second figure was covered in a dark brown cloak, with white hair and a white beard peeking out from underneath the hood.

Ralph began to laugh, seeing the two figures slowly walk across the court.

"Ralph! There's nothing funny about this..." Bill muttered under his breath. "Just get a load of that green guy...!"

"Bill, that's Yoda! And, it looks like Obi -Wan Kenobi"

"Obeee Whoobee??" Bill asked, as the two mysterious figures approached the group.

"Aw, come on, Billy!" a familiar voice asked from behind the green rubber mask. "Even I know Star Wars, and I haven't even seen 'em!!"

Bill's eyes opened wide, as he recognized the voice of his first partner, Harlan Blackford.

"Harlan? What are you doing here?"

The group laughed, watching Han Solo gawk at Yoda. Cyler stepped up, and explained.

"Well, we figured that the best person to play the wise old Jedi master would be, well, some wise old guy, you know?" Cyler patted Harlan on the back. "How you doing, Mr. B?" Yoda shook his head in reply.

"And, seeing as how you are always going on about your old partner, well, we figured it would be a good fit. So we gave 'em a call, to see if he wanted to be the old Jedi Master!"

Removing the hood from his head, the second figure next to Harlan threw back his cloak, revealing an Obi-Wan Kenobi costume.

"And, well, Master Yoda couldn't really drive himself here..." he said with a wide grin. "...so I figured I'd come along, too!"

"Ira! You made it!" Pam shrieked, delighted to see Harlan's companion, still by his side. She walked over to Ira, and gave him a big hug. "Ira, you were our only hope!" she added, joking.

Bill was still in shock, and clearly not getting all the references. But he recognized that what the kids and Ralph had pulled off here tonight was pretty special. For that alone, he smiled, as he watched the kids turn to one another, admiring one another's costumes.

"Harlan, you know about this stuff?"

"Of course I do! It's all over the radio... I heard about it on NPR just last week."

Bill chuckled, realizing that his old partner was the only one who could not see how ridiculous and fabulous they all looked tonight.

"So, Billy" Harlan asked, pulling Han Solo to the side. "What did they make you dress up as?"

"Oh, yeah, well they let me be the main character, Harlan," Bill said, in a loud and proud voice.

"You're Luke Skywalker?" Harlan replied. "Gee, Bill, I thought you'd make a better Han Solo..."

Bill shot Harlan a nasty look, then shot it's twin to Ralph, too.

"Very funny, Ralph," Bill mumbled, breaking a little smile, as he helped his old Jedi Master find a seat.

–continued–